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Out of a desolate grove of once bountiful pecan trees on the banks of the Oconee River grew a complex of buildings which changed the face of life in Laurens County forever. On a cool St. Patrick's Day morning in 1947, bulldozers began clearing the site for the location of one of the most modern woolen mills in America. For six decades, the men and women of J.P. Stevens and Company and later Forstmann and Company went to work. With a pride unrivaled anywhere else in the community, these folks, our folks, produced the finest textile materials in the world. This is the story of the beginning of the "Woolen Mill," and its impact not only on the styles of our garments, but the styles of our lives. (

The construction of the Stevens mill in East Dublin was supervised by Colonel John Baum. In the year after the end of World War II, John Baum (LEFT) was sent to survey cities in the South for the company's first mill outside of New England. Baum, a member of G…

You may have never heard of Hartford, Georgia. If you have, you may have never thought of it as being in Laurens County. But from December 10, 1807 to December 10, 1808, this ancient and dead town of Central Georgia lied within the bounds of Laurens County. Located at an important crossing spot on the Ocmulgee River, Hartford became the first county seat in Georgia named for a woman. By the slimmest of margins, Hartford failed to become one of the most important cities in
Georgia history.

The area which became Hartford, Georgia was located on the eastern banks of the Ocmulgee River, opposite Hawkinsville. The State of Georgia acquired all of the land between the Oconee and Ocmulgee rivers from the Creek Nation under the treaty of Ft. Wilkinson in 1801. Hartford, located at the extreme southwestern limits of the state at a point where the Lower Uchee Trail crossed the Ocmulgee River, became an important and strategic location for th…